


Bad Influences, Old Friends

by Galindrael



Series: A Very Dragon Age Christmas [6]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: ? - Freeform, Ambassador Princess and Bara Warden like yea, DECFANFIC, Day Six, F/M, Fluff, Planning Holiday Party, spoiler - Freeform, super fluff, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 07:57:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2724692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galindrael/pseuds/Galindrael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josephine is the queen of planning. She can plan a party like no one's business but, when the Inquisitor catches a cold and can no longer help as planned she becomes a bit overwhelmed...until Leliana shows up.</p><p>For the #DecFanFic contest.</p><p>There are currently 22 parts to this series, the link, for some reason is broken- sorry for the issue, I'm trying to fix it (as of 1 February 2015)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Influences, Old Friends

Scáthach had caught a cold, which wasn’t ideal for Josephine. Josephine was trying to prepare Skyhold for her sister, Yvette, to visit…and there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t just bring Laurien and Antoine along with her. _Couldn’t Solas just heal-_ A knock on the door made her pause, “Come in” she responded.

Leliana peeked her head in and when Josephine saw who it was she smiled, “You did not have to knock,” she stood up.

Leliana smiled, and pushed the door open fully to reveal she had a tray of fruit and hot tea in her hands, “I figured you might want some help with planning”.

“Oh, bless you, yes,” Josephine cleared a place for the tray by the fire, and Leliana sat it gracefully down before she plopped herself on the large, cushioned chair.

Without having to ask, Josephine poured the tea and plopped in two sugar cubes before handing it to Leliana, who graciously took it from Josephine’s hands to warm up her own.

“So, what do you have so far,” Leliana crossed her legs and tucked her feet under, had that been anyone else Josephine would have scolded them for putting their feet on such nice furniture.

“Well,” Josephine began as she finished pouring herself a cup, “I know my sister will prefer to stay in the main hall, probably by myself or the Inquisitor, but seeing how the available room by the Inquisitor’s office is a little too close for when-,” Josephine paused trying to phrase it as tactfully as possible, but Leliana finished her sentence.

“Just in case her and Cullen have sex, you don’t want your sister within ear shot,” Josephine shot Leliana a look who was smiling like the cat who caught the canary, “so she’s by Vivienne and Solas,” her face slightly dropped, “and me”.

Josephine laughed quietly, “Yes, I’m afraid,” she took another drink of her tea, relishing the warmth of the liquid, “mostly I don’t want her returning to court with stories about if you stay at Skyhold, how on occasion, if you listened, you can hear the Commander and the Inquisitor having _relations_ in the middle of the night”.

Leliana laughed, “Oh, like that stops them from having _relations,_ as you so delicately put it, in other places of Skyhold,” she took a sip and looked to Josephine who had a _‘what do you mean’_ eager expression on her face.

“I never divulge my secrets, Ambassador,” she smiled and Josephine threw a grape at her.

“For me, you do,” she teased.

“Well…” Leliana scooted closer to the edge of her seat and whispered, “I went to deliver reports about what my spies had seen over the missing soldiers in the south, remember,” Josephine nodded, “and when I got close to the door I heard our dear Commander exclaim a bit loudly,” she sheepishly smiled, “So, I thought, maybe our _reserved_ Commander might have just stubbed his toe or what have you,” she smiled wider when she saw Josephine’s amused expression, “ but when I got closer, I heard our dear Inquisitor, well…compliment the Commander”.

Josephine, despite herself, outright laughed hard enough to make her and Leliana fall into a fit of giggling when a knock on the door interrupted.

“Come in,” Josephine said trying to regain her composure but she just lost it when the Commander opened the door.

“I-”he stopped when the Spymaster and Ambassador, in unison, began laughing louder, “I came to,” they laughed louder at his word choice, “Sorry, should I return at a later time” he rubbed the back of his neck and squinted at them.

“No, please, I am sorry, Commander,” Josephine stopped laughing but she was still trying not to smile too much.

“Yes, well-My soldiers reported they saw a carriage with your family crest seemingly heading towards Skyhold, I made you a copy of the reports. The expected date of arrival is on the last page,” Cullen handed her the papers and started to say something before he closed his mouth, nodded towards the women and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

As soon as that door shut they began laughing more, catching up with each other and gossiping about who was caught doing what and with whom, for a bit longer. Leliana, of course, neglecting to mention when she was sure she saw Josephine blush when Blackwall gave her a jewelry box he made from scratch for her name’s day…which was sitting behind her desk on one of the shelves of her many bookcases. It was made with great care; ornately carved and elegantly designed, painted with the Montilyet house colours.  The nightingale needed to have a _word_ with a certain bearded man.

 

When lunch rolled around, then they started truly working, determining where to set up the table Vivienne _graciously_ donated for the occasion; eventually deciding the gallery was the just the place for the beautiful long cherry-wood dining table. Leliana sent her spies to find a more sophisticated set of dining ware, since Skyhold currently just held mostly wooden bowls, and, after a longer-than-necessary debate, decided to serve them à la Antiva. Josephine agreed that as much as she enjoyed the service of à la Orlais, being served all their dishes at once, was less practical and more chaotic with so many guests; when served à la Antiva, they were given their dishes in sequential order, one at a time- much more precise.

The sun just setting was Josephine’s only real indication for how long she had been working. People coming in and out of her office all day to give her their usual reports would halt her work on the dinner planning, so she just started creating a pile that she would read before bed if they weren’t marked as urgent.

Deciding what to eat was easy. No problem, at all…but where to sit each guest was another thing. She knew the Inquisitor should head the table, the Commander to her right but beyond that she was now just staring at her crude drawing of a table. She stared at the long list of names:

-Scáthach            -Cullen                  -Yvette                -Leliana                -Blackwall            -Dorian  
-The Iron Bull       -Cole                     -Varric                 -Solas                    -Sera                 -Vivienne  
-Cassandra          -Herself                -[+ possibly her brother(s)]

She tried to note who liked who and who would probably stab themselves if they had to sit next to certain people. She was used to planning grander parties, where you sat yourself and everyone got offended anyway. But this smaller, intimate setting made way for personal insults and that unnerved her. Josephine sighed, running her hands through her hair and slowly removed each individual pin and setting them on her desk. Leliana, who had quietly opened the door to see if Josephine needed anymore help, saw her friend’s frazzled look and left quickly to retrieve the only thing she knew was going to pick up the stressed Antivan.

 _If I don’t set Yvette next to the Inquisitor, that could be seen as rude. And there is no way Cullen would part from the seat to her right, it’s a symbol- to be on the right meant he was her protector. Which no one would deny that man makes himself as a shield to her, I swear. But does the Commander care for such formalities?_ She ran her hands through her loose hair again, and sighed. _And this is only Cullen’s seating, lovely._ She left Cullen next to the Inquisitor and her sister across from the Commander. She sat herself to her sister’s side and that was as far as she got before Leliana came in.

“Stop what you’re doing this instant,” Josephine looked up, a bit bewildered at the sudden demand, “I need help doing something very important,” Josephine was about to ask what could be so important _now_ when Leliana pulled a bottle of honey mead from behind her back with one hand and with the other she revealed two drinking tankards.

“Oh, Leliana, I musn’t,” she looked to her chart, and felt the stress creep back to her head, “But I shall nonetheless”, she stood up and smiled when Leliana handed her the bottle and then offered her hand to her.

The two took off, giggling like they used to before Josephine encountered her true Bardic training; when she was just a young noble woman without much of a care in the world. Leliana had swooped her off her feet and showed her a different world where the words on paper were just as deadly as the point of a sword. She loved Leliana deeply and could never have done it, or survived, without her. The red-headed woman guided them in the dark, using back-tunnels and rickety ladders to get to the very top of Skyhold.

They made it to the top without being noticed and Leliana offered her a tankard and Josephine handed the bottle back to Leliana who always used her daggers to pop open their shared bottles. Both women scooted to the edge of the roof to dangle their feet, Josephine half-slipping out of her shoes to expose her heels to the cold. Leliana motioned to Josephine’s tankard, and waited for it to be raised to her.

“You know, Lady Montilyet, I am surprised at you,” she poured Josephine’s drink, “Skipping out on duties and such. I’d love to see Cullen’s face when he can’t find the spymaster _and_ Skyhold’s ambassador,” she giggled.

“You are such a bad influence,” she knocked into Leliana playfully and when doing so one of her shoes slipped off and fell into the courtyard below. All they could do was watch and Leliana just started wildly laughing, “Oh, no. I do hope no one is down there,” Josephine muttered she peered down trying to make out the courtyard below.

“Don’t worry, there are far worse ways to die than death by shoe,” Leliana joked and faced her body to Jospehine.

Leliana raised her cup, “To being a bad influence and old friends”.

“More like to bad influences and long-lost sisters,” Josephine clinked her glass to Leliana’s.

“That _is_ much better,” Leliana agreed.  

 

They spent some time up on the roof, just reminiscing and bull-shitting while they could, when the bottle was empty they took the conventional route back down as it was much safer than how they got up, especially since they were now slightly intoxicated. Leliana hugged Josephine and promised to help her catch-up with all of the stacking paperwork.

 “Goodnight, Josie”, Leliana said as she started on her way back to the rookery she called home. _How does she sleep with all those birds?_

“Good night Leliana,” she responded a bit delayed but the wave from Leliana let her know she at least heard it.

Josephine headed to her pile of paperwork to grab a candle to take to bed and wildly jumped when a deep voice spoke, “I’m sorry to disturb you, Lady Montilyet”. Blackwall was sitting in the seat by the fire and was now standing up holding something in his lap.

“It is nothing Ser Blackwall, you just startled me,” Josephine began tying up her hair at the sudden warmth rushing to her face. Blackwall had his hair pulled back in a bun and he was wearing plain soldier’s clothes but still, Josephine thought he looked very dashing at the moment and was starting to become tongue-tied although she was not trying to speak.

“Your fire was out when I came in so I lit it, I hope you don’t mind,” he took a small step towards her, his posture staying straight and features surprisingly soft for such a burly man.

“Oh, thank you,” she gestured to the fire and walked around her desk, “this room does get quiet cold if you let the fire die; A gesture that is not unnoticed, Ser Blackwall”.

He smiled, ever so-slightly, most of it hidden under his beard but it peaked through enough to see, “I uh-I found this in the courtyard,” he raised his hand to reveal the shoe that slipped off earlier, “It, uh, startled the horses and I saw it. Recognized it was yours”, he took another step to her, “May I?”

 _May you what? What is it? “_ Of course,” she replied intending to fill the creeping silence before she realized what he meant but before she could announce that she changed her mind, he was kneeling in front of her with her shoe in his hand.

Josephine, unsure what to do, tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder for balance and used the other to lift her dress just enough to expose a little more than her ankles.

One of Blackwall’s rough hands guided her foot into the shoe gently. _Is he always gentle?_ The other hand that had been holding the back of her heel, brushed ever-so slightly up her calf; just a few inches but Josephine shuddered nonetheless. _Maker, help me._

Blackwall stood to his full height before he bowed slightly to Josephine, “Goodnight, Lady Ambassador,” he began to leave. _Not yet. There is a moment here, I cannot let it die for lack of trying._

“Wait,” she physically reached out to him, despite knowing he was out of reach.

Blackwall stopped and turned to her, confused, but…hopeful? She walked to him, almost unsure if she was actually moving, and planted a quick kiss on his cheek, “Thank you”.

He looked baffled that she had kissed him, but the smile came nonetheless. Josephine went scarlet. _Why did I do that? What if I am imagining things? What if he doesn’t-._

She was cut off by Blackwall tilting her face to his and planting a soft kiss on her lips. Nothing could have prepared her for that and she practically buckled. It was gentle, and chaste, but there was also passion behind it; reserved or not, Josephine felt like she could be a puddle on the floor.

He pulled away slowly, clearly not wanting to leave but he did because everything that was in his nature told him to let the lady decide what was to happen next. And Josephine, Maker help him, Josephine was a real lady.

“Farewell Lady Josephine,” he bowed again and waited for her to dismiss him

“Goodnight, Ser Blackwall,” she replied quietly.

“Thom. Or Blackwall, if it suits you,” he offered before he reached the door.

“Well, then it’s Josie,” realizing how demanding she sounded, “If- if it suits you,” she said and his smile warmed her heart all over again.

“Goodnight Josie,” he said once more.

“Goodnight Thom,” she said, heart fluttering.

 

As soon as he was gone she headed to her sleeping quarters and grabbed her softest pillow and plopped down on her bed and giggled like a school girl before she finally changed into her night clothes and loosely braided her hair, all with a smile plastered upon her face. The Breach could’ve opened in her room and she’d still be there, smiling like an idiot.

Despite her plans being disrupted, she was ecstatic. Damn always keeping composure. Damn always having perfect parties that made her so stressed she couldn’t enjoy her hard work. Damn the dinner party planning, it was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Day six! Wow, I actually really like writing them together, dang. I wanted a one-shot /mostly/ focused on friendship, because Leliana and Josie have such a cute dynamic in the game. #BardLadiesForLife


End file.
